Wordy Wednesday 5: Pent Words

WORDY WEDNESDAY #3

ADDING AND ANAGRAMMING (answer)

It's been two weeks, so time to unveil the answer to this puzzle. If you still wish to solve it yourself, please go here for the normal version of the puzzle, or here for the easier version of the puzzle. Here's a list of people who solved it:
Giovanni Pagano *
Jack Lance **
James McGowan *
Mark Tilford **
Randy Rogers **
Scott Handelman *

WORDY WEDNESDAY #4

DIAGRAMLESS HELTER SKELTER (hint)

6 people (interestingly, the same 6 listed above) have solved last week's puzzle. Haven't solved it yet? Here's an easier version (and by easier, I mean much easier). Send your solutions to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com within the next week to appear on the solvers list and be recognized for your puzzle prowess. Good luck, solvers!

WORDY WEDNESDAY #5

PENT WORDS
(click here for a PDF version)

In this puzzle, you must divide the grid into pentominoes (regions containing five cells each), and write a letter in each cell. The rows, reading from left to right, will contain the words hinted at by the ACROSS clues. The letters in the pentominoes, in reading order (left to right starting with the top row), will form the words hinted at by the PENTOMINOES clues; these clues are presented in no particular order. (In the example above, the rows spell PLANT, SHARE, and BITES, and the pentominoes spell the words PLANS, TREES, and HABIT.) Use the ACROSS answers to determine where the pentominoes are.

ACROSS (two answers per row):
1  Play a guitar, for example / Out
2  28th President of the United States / "How Great ____ Art"
3  Japanese board game / Gorge
4  Option / Toward shelter
5  Angry / Colorado, for example
6  Vanna White, to Pat Sajak / Lead
7  Kettle output / Cotton ____
8  Wanness / Greek God of war
9  Obscure / Color
10 Beginner / Nearsighted

PENTOMINOES:
* HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* THE OTHER HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* Myrrh, for example
* Pink Floyd hit that is mostly in 7/4 meter
* Holiday greeting adjective
* "Nothing but net" basketball shot
* 200 milligrams
* Jonathan Arthur DeBarge's nickname
* Fuzzy ____
* Valuable thing
* Rebound
* Donald who feuded with O'Donnell
* "____ by Me"
* ____ screwdriver (Doctor Who gadget)
* Speak
* Subject
* Old Testament prophet
* "Magic Man" band
* "Still ____" (Portal ending song)
* Bide for time

Wordy Wednesday 4: Diagramless Helter Skelter

WORDY WEDNESDAY #2

SUMMING AND SCRAMBLING (answer)

It's been two weeks, so time to unveil the answer to this puzzle. If you still wish to solve it yourself, please go here for the normal version of the puzzle, or here for the easier version of the puzzle. Congratulations to all 5 people on the solvers list:
Giovanni Pagano **
Jack Lance **
Mark Tilford **
Randy Rogers *
Term Ital **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #3

ADDING AND ANAGRAMMING (hint)

3 people have solved last week's puzzle. Haven't solved it yet? Here's an easier version that changes some clues. Send your solutions to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com within the next week to appear on the solvers list and be recognized for your puzzle prowess. Your solutions are what make Wordy Wednesday truly rewarding. Good luck, solvers!

WORDY WEDNESDAY #4

DIAGRAMLESS HELTER SKELTER
(click here for a PDF version)

My tribute to Brendan Emmett Quigley's Helter Skelter puzzles in Will Shortz's Wordplay. Every answer reads in one of eight directions, starting with one of the letters (besides the first) of the previous answer. Normally, there are numbers in the grid indicating where each answer starts, such as in THIS EXAMPLE, but I was too lazy to put them in.

Rearrange the letters in the shaded spaces to get a pair of related words that are the final answer.
1. Like a vixen
2. Game 5 of Action 52 which, due to a bug, could not be beaten for a $104,000 prize
3. “Duke of ____” (Gene Chandler classic)
4. Secure
5. Used crayons, perhaps
6. This answer isn't horizontal or vertical, but ____
7. ____ of Legends (MMO by Riot Games)
8. A Monopoly board corner: 3 wds.
9. He dreamt about a ladder
10. Cordon ____
11. Microsoft product
12. Espresso/milk mixture
13. Mexican items that may be soft or hard
14. This answer runs from west to east on the ____ edge
15. Revert an action
16. Gets behind the wheel of
17. Muffler
18. Enough to pack a vehicle with
19. Exercise
20. m in y=mx+b
21. John Deacon or Roger Taylor, as Queen's logo indicates
22. “I goofed”
23. Rather Dashing is one

Wordy Wednesday 3: Adding and Anagramming

WORDY WEDNESDAY #1

CROSSWORD OF INTEGERS (answer)

It has been two weeks since Wordy Wednesday debuted on this blog, so now it is time to reveal the winner of the contest. First, here's the answer to the puzzle. If you want to try to solve it yourself, click this link instead to view the original version of the puzzle, or this link for the version with two letters placed at the start. And now, a list of all the people who solved this puzzle:
Andrew Brecher *
Blaine & Felicia **
Brian Michalowski **
Bryce Herdt **
Fred Coughlin **
Jack Bross **
Jack Lance **
Jeffrey Harris **
Mark Tilford **
Michael Sylvia **
Randy Rogers *
Tawan Sunathvanichkul *
Term Ital *
And the winner, selected via random.org, is: Term Ital! Congratulations! You will receive a signed copy of Will Shortz's Wordplay from me.
Since I still have other copies of this issue on my person, I hope to have another contest in the near future. For now, though, I've decided not to have a contest, so as to increase people's incentive to actually share the puzzle. Please share this week's puzzle and help me develop a reputation as someone who can do things with words!

WORDY WEDNESDAY #2

SUMMING AND SCRAMBLING (hint)

4 people have solved last week's puzzle. I was hoping for more. Haven't solved it yet? Here's a slightly easier version that changes some clues. Send your solutions to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com within the next week to appear on the solvers list and be recognized for your puzzle prowess. Good luck, solvers!

WORDY WEDNESDAY #3

ADDING AND ANAGRAMMING
(click here for a PDF version)

Use your anagramming abilities to determine which of the words clued below corresponds to which words in the grid above. As a hint, the clue numbers corresponding to those words sum to 65 in each row and each column. Ultimately, identify the title of the game which is being hinted at by the hidden 25-letter message.
1. Verse
2. Extreme
3. Run after
4. Rodent with valuable fur
5. Strata
6. What you might be after a hard workout
7. Loathing
8. Expensive
9. Adam and Jamie's dummy
10. Respond to
11. Whose Line is it Anyway? cast member
12. Common category on Wheel of Fortune
13. Did something asinine
14. Apparatus with beads
15. Hunger ____
16. Some horses
17. Legendary fire-breather
18. Makes coffee, perhaps
19. A Muppet
20. Car radio feature
21. Down alternative
22. Spotless
23. A character on the TV show The Addams Family
24. Like a catcher's hand
25. Start again, as a computer

Wordy Wednesday 2: Summing and Scrambling

WORDY WEDNESDAY #1

CROSSWORD OF INTEGERS (hint)

I've already received 9 answers to the first installment. There is still time to solve the puzzle and be entered in the drawing to win a signed copy of Will Shortz's Wordplay, so get cracking. This image shows you two of the letters in the puzzle, leaving a mere 24! possibilities for the rest rather than 26!. (You still have to figure out how to extract the final answer from the solved grid.) If you want to try to solve the puzzle without the hint, then don't click the "This image" link!

This week's puzzle isn't a contest, but solvers are nonetheless highly encouraged to send their solutions to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com so that they can appear on a list of solvers to be published two weeks from now.

WORDY WEDNESDAY #2

SUMMING AND SCRAMBLING

(click here for a PDF version)

Use your anagramming abilities to determine which of the words clued below corresponds to which words in the grid above. As a hint, the clue numbers corresponding to those words sum to 65 in each row and each column. Ultimately, identify the title of the game which is being hinted at by the hidden 25-letter message.
1. Petty officer
2. Clive Staples ____
3. Food Network's Brown
4. Apple ____
5. Some racers
6. Days of our ____
7. Indian, for one
8. Sheath of sorts
9. Disturb
10. Assigns to a table
11. Verse writer's feet
12. Extravagant talk
13. Sheepish?
14. Some crime films
15. African antelope
16. Ship that refuels other ships
17. Be buoyant
18. Small body of land
19. Big books
20. Sell at gigantic profit
21. Editor's symbol
22. Colorless gas
23. Classic Concentration feature
24. Use a car
25. Odor